Last Lunar Eclipse 2020

On 30 November 2020, there is the fourth and last lunar eclipse of 2020 appearing in the skies that can be seen in the visible regions or you can watch it on YouTube live streams. 

Our moon doesn’t have its own light, it only reflects. It’s the sunlight that illuminates the moon. Sometimes we unable to see the full moon due to sunlight, it hits the moon on its far side. When sunlight reflects off the near side, we then able to see the full moon. These changes of the Moon we see in a month are called lunar phases.

‘’Everything is moving’’ - the Moon has orbital motion around Earth and Earth has orbital motion the Sun.

Lunar Eclipse occurs when the earth’s shadow comes between the sun and the moon, Earth blocks the sunlight falling on the moon. The moon will appear reddish during certain stages of a lunar eclipse. This is because, as seen from the surface of the Moon, the only remaining sunlight which reaches the Moon at that point is from around the edges of the Earth. From there, an observer will see all the Earth's sunrises and sunsets at once during the eclipse.

 

There are two kinds of lunar eclipses:

·         A total lunar eclipse happens when the Moon and Sun are on opposite sides of the planet. The moon is not going to magically disappear totally, but it's going to be cast in dim darkness, which makes it easy to miss if you haven't been watching for an eclipse. Some sunlight is dispersed and refracted, or bent, moving through the Earth's atmosphere and refocused on the moon, giving it a faint glow even in totality.

·         A partial lunar eclipse occurs when part of Earth's shadow covers the Moon only. The sun, planet, and moon are not always completely aligned during the partial process, and the shadow of the earth seems to take a chunk out of the moon.

·         A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth blocks some of the Sun's light from reaching the Moon and the Earth's shadow covers all or part of the Moon. In a penumbral lunar eclipse, the moon is in Earth's faint outer (penumbral) shadow that’s why it is the least interesting type of lunar eclipse. 

The fourth and last lunar eclipse of 2020 is on 30, November 2020. This is the penumbral lunar eclipse. This the latest lunar eclipse is likely to be visible from North and South America, Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic oceans, in many parts of Europe including Australia and some parts of Asia.

The lunar eclipse will start at 1:02 p.m. IST and will be maximum at 3:12 p.m. IST, as per the available information on the Norwegian site timeanddate.com. It's supposed to last four hours and 21 minutes and it's going to finish at 5:23pm IST. You don't need special eyewear to be able to watch live lunar eclipses. Being a penumbral eclipse, however, it can be difficult at first glance to spot the difference, if you are not looking for the eclipse.

How to watch a lunar eclipse

Among the best sky-watching activities to observe are lunar eclipses. It's not necessary to have a telescope or any other special equipment - Binoculars or a small telescope for taking out information on the lunar surface. In winter it's really interesting to watch the moon during an eclipse. It can take a few hours for an eclipse to unfold, bundle up if you intend to be out for the duration.